Although I love being a parent, sometimes the job of parenting is hard, confusing, and frustrating. “Maura,” the sweet woman who does my hair, is experiencing one of those difficult times with her first grade son, more specifically, with his teacher.
I don’t pretend to be an expert on parenting, teaching, or maneuvering the educational system, but I do have 10 years of experience with guiding my own two children through various school issues that have cropped up over the years. So when Maura said she’d been anticipating seeing me because she wanted to run her son’s situation past me, I really wanted to help her.
As Maura cut my hair, I listened to her concerns and empathized with the difficult spot in which she finds herself: trying to advocate for her son while maintaining a positive relationship with the school administration and teachers. I offered her my perspective and advice, and although it wasn’t anything earth-shattering, she did seem more confident in her approach to a “problem solving” meeting initiated by the school administration coming up next week.
One observation about kindness that I’ve experienced over the past 26 days: Kindness is most often a person-to-person experience that is sometimes initiated by me, but just as often is an opportunity that presents itself and can be easily missed. When kindness is at the forefront of my mind, I more often notice and respond to those kindness opportunities. This is good.
Michele, I love how you keep giving in little ways. Reading your blog every morning keeps me thinking of kindness, as well.
Over the weekend, I was a designated driver… ‘Nuff said.